ADULT. have announced details of their new album Becoming Undone for release on February 25th via Dais Records, with vinyl to land in stores worldwide on March 11th. Along with the announcement, they have shared a first cut from the album and accompanying video, as well as North American and European tour dates throughout the first half of 2022.
After a quarter century of nearly nonstop activity, dystopian Detroit synth-punk institution ADULT. have perfected a strain of stylistic cohesion in the album format, “but for this we wanted something that’s falling apart.” Becoming Undone, the ninth official full-length by co-founders Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller, explicitly succeeds in this aim, simultaneously rejecting and reflecting the planetary discord that inspired it.
Written between November 2020 and April 2021, the album might be ADULT.’s most non-conformant yet. Today they’ve revealed lead single “Fools (We Are…)“. The twitchy EBM track is paired with a self-made video that was birthed from an idea to combine Kuperus’s recurring performance of this clown/fool theme and a series of drawings that Miller had always wanted to realize into a sculptural installation — the Golden Fountains.
They comment: “Inspiration came from performances by Paul McCarthy’s ‘Painter’ to Bruce Nauman’s ‘Clown Torture.’ The sculptural work of Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ to Robert Gober’s ‘Two urinals (in 2 parts),’ and the album artwork of Fad Gadget’s ‘Incontinent.’ The toilet is a universal motif, a shared human situation or in some cases shituation. We are all fools in one way or another, from war to waste to societal trends in ridiculous human behavior.”
Listen to “Fools (We Are…)” and watch the video for it below:
The making of Becoming Undone began in the latter half of 2020 against a backdrop of unprecedented flux and seismic isolation, the duo kickstarted their muse by sourcing fresh additions to the rig: a vocal loop pedal for Kuperus and Roland percussion pads for Miller. Reconnecting with legacy influences like the politicized industrial percussion of Test Department and the queasy miscreant synthetics of TG’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats sparked a series of fruitfully frenetic sessions, centred on themes of impermanence and dissonance. Miller’s rationale is blunt: “We weren’t interested in melody or harmony since we didn’t see the world having that.”
The album is also freighted with a more personal pain, as Kuperus’ father passed away during the height of the pandemic, just before the album took root. As his hospice caretakers, she and Miller faced the banality of finality, surrounded by objects drained of meaning, “the joy of having a body, but also the drudgery of having one.”
Both sides bristle with strident acidic revolt and black leather sequential circuits, unhinged and unforgiving. From technoid blitzes to slower tempos of purgatorial unravelling, Becoming Undone showcases a breadth of vocal FX. Kuperus at times sounds alternately indignant and possessed, decrying the crimes, fears, and failings of a deluded world. Throughout, the band’s chemistry crackles with revulsion and strobe-lit dissent, equal parts exorcism and denunciation. “Humans have always been pretty terrible,” Kuperus explains. “But every year the compromises of culture just accelerate.”
Becoming Undone artwork & tracklist:
1. Undoing / Undone
2. Our Bodies Weren’t Wrong
3. Fools (We Are…)
4. Normative Sludge
5. I Am Nothing
6. She’s Nice Looking
7. I, Obedient
8. Teeth Out PT. II
European live dates:
07/03/2022 UK Bristol – Thekla
08/03/2022 UK Glasgow – Slay
09/03/2022 UK Manchester – White Hotel
10/03/2022 UK London – Electrowerkz
11/03/2022 FRA Lille – Black Lab
12/03/2022 BE Brussels – Magasin 4
14/03/2022 DE Hamburg – Hafenklang
15/03/2022 SWE Malmo – Plan B
16/03/2022 SWE Gothenburg – Musikens Hus
17/03/2022 SWE Stockholm – HUS 7
18/03/2022 DK Copenhagen – Stengade
19/03/2022 DE Berlin – Urban Spree
22/03/2022 PL Lodz – DOM
23/03/2022 PL Wroclaw – Akademia
24/03/2022 AT Linz – KAPU
25/03/2022 AT Wien – Chelsea
26/03/2022 HUN Budapest – Dürer Kert
27/03/2022 CZ Prague – Chapeau Rouge
28/03/2022 DE Munich – Rote Sonne
30/03/2022 CH Yverdon-les-Bains – L’Amalgame
31/03/2022 FRA Lyon – Sonic
01/04/2022 FRA Paris – La Boule Noire
02/04/2022 NL – Nijmegen Merleyn
Support from Plack Blague
North American live dates:
11/20: Los Angeles, CA – Rubycon Records
12/31: St Paul, MN – The Overlook at Historic Concord Exchange
04/13: Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop ~
04/14: Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Hall ~
04/15: Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts (Black Box) ~
04/16: Brooklyn, NY – Market Hotel ~
04/18: Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery ~
04/19: Richmond, VA – Richmond Music Hall ~
04/20: Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle (Back Room) ~
04/21: Atlanta, GA – The Earl ~
04/22: Orlando, FL – Will’s Pub ~
04/23: Miami, FL – Gramps ~
04/25: Tampa, FL – The Crowbar ~
04/27: New Orleans, LA – Santos ~
04/28: Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall ~
04/29: Austin, TX – The Parish ~
04/30: Dallas, TX – Ruins ~
05/02: Albuquerque, NM – Sister ~
05/03: Phoenix, AZ – The Rebel Lounge ~
05/05: San Diego, CA – Casbah ~
05/06: Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room ~
05/07: San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop ~
05/10: Seattle, WA – The Crocodile (Second Stage) ~
05/11: Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre (Verboden Festival) ~
05/12: Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge ~
05/14: Denver, CO – Hi-Dive ~
05/17: Omaha, NE – Reverb Lounge ~
05/18: Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry ~
05/19: Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club ~
05/20: Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle ~
05/21: Detroit, MI – City Club ~
~ w/ Kontravoid and Spike Hellis